U.S. regained broadband leadership in key areas - More on the W.H. plan for cyber executive order - FirstNet board has first meeting - Business perspectives on China

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GENACHOWSKI: U.S. REGAINED BROADBAND LEADERSHIP IN KEY AREAS — FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski says challenges still remain but likens the push for more bandwidth to the space race, in remarks he’s expected to make today at Vox Media. Here’s an excerpt:

“Most notably, we are in a global bandwidth race, which will help determine who leads on jobs and GDP in this flat, competitive, innovation-driven global economy. And much like the space race in the 20th century, success in this race will unleash waves of innovation that will go a long way toward determining who leads our global economy in the 21st century. Our challenge is to make sure that the U.S. has a strategic bandwidth advantage.”

MORE ON THE W.H. PLAN FOR CYBER EXECUTIVE ORDER -- From Reuters’ Joseph Menn: “The White House is preparing to direct federal agencies to develop voluntary cybersecurity guidelines for owners of power, water and other critical infrastructure facilities, according to people who said they had seen recent drafts of an executive order. The prospective order would give the agencies 90 days to propose new regulations and create a new cybersecurity council at the Department of Homeland Security with representatives from the Defense Department, Justice Department, Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Commerce, a former government cybersecurity official told Reuters.” The Reuters story: http://reut.rs/VzZBkE. And ICYMI, Tony Romm has the Pro story about Sen. Joe Lieberman’s letter to Obama arguing that federal agencies shouldn't stop at voluntary security standards: http://politico.pro/QucSdP

FIRSTNET BOARD HAS FIRST MEETING — It's the first day for FirstNet, the board overseeing build-out of the nationwide broadband network for police officers and firefighters. The group is huddling at an inaugural meeting today at the Department of Commerce that kicks off 9 a.m. On today's schedule is a lot of early procedural work — adopting bylaws, for example, and procuring resolutions on consultation processes with states and on grants. The board is also going to hear presentations on two conceptual frameworks on network and applications architecture, though both items are not official FirstNet proposals to be voted on by the board. However, sources tell MT the board is expected to ask NTIA to issue NOIs on the two presentations. Full agenda here: http://1.usa.gov/PBxkI6

TESTPAC WANTS INTERNET ISSUES AIRED IN DEBATES — If you’re like us, you’ll be watching the upcoming presidential debates for any mention of tech issues. testPAC, a Reddit community Internet advocacy group, is trying to make sure the candidates address the issues directly. The group is calling for the Commission on Presidential Debates to include one or more questions about Internet freedom in the debates. “The Romney and Obama campaigns have yet to speak about their feelings on legislations like SOPA and PIPA which fundamentally transform Americans’ access to the Internet and online freedom, nor have they expressed any views on net neutrality or intellectual property rights,” testPAC spokesman Michael Embrich said in a statement. testPAC is calling on the Internet community to lobby in favor of an Internet rights question. The group wrote three possible questions on digital rights, and it’s rounding up the Reddit troops to use media and viral tactics to get the questions into the debates. http://bit.ly/xfyIIP

TIA RATES ROMNEY AND OBAMA — The Telecommunications Industry Association is out today with a new “Presidential Scorecard” comparing Barack Obama and Mitt Romney on spectrum availability, tax reform, cybersecurity and other top tech and telecom issues. Per the release:

“President Obama and Gov. Romney disagree on a specific corporate tax rate, [but] both men want to strengthen and make permanent the research and development tax credit — a key priority for the ICT [information and communications technology] industry. The candidates also agree that national cybersecurity policy must be updated.” Read the scorecard here: http://bit.ly/QoVjJQ

Good Tuesday morning and welcome to Morning Tech, where we hope that no one notices the frequency with which we wear two completely different socks. Today we learned that a company called Blacksocks has developed what it says are the world’s first smart socks. The socks come with RFID buttons sewn onto each one and a handheld wireless detector that can be used to find each sock’s proper mate. Via Gizmodo: http://bit.ly/UMG7K4

** A message from Huawei: We've put $230 million into innovation in the U.S. and bought $30 billion from U.S. suppliers. And that's just the beginning. Learn more at http://bit.ly/ORkGYG **

BUSINESS PERSPECTIVES ON CHINA — Despite the accusations back and forth in the presidential campaign over who is worse on China, businesspeople have been gathering across the country as part of a program called US-China Investment Week to discuss how to improve trade relations between the countries. Robert Cresanti, vice president of government relations for SAP, attended the opening summit in Dallas Friday and said that among the many “billionaire capitalists both from China and the United States… a major topic of conversation was the barbs back and forth on the political front.”

As part of the conference, Cresanti, who served as Under Secretary of Commerce for Technology in the George W. Bush administration, interviewed Bush about U.S.-China relations. “We talked about his personal experiences with China and how he saw foreign direct investment coming from China to the United States and saw direct investment from the U.S. into China and he was very direct about saying that he was very pro open trade and continued to be,” Cresanti told POLITICO. Investment Week activities, sponsored by PiYi Investment and the Council of American States in China, continue this week bringing discussions to Los Angeles, Orlando, Milwaukee and Portland. http://bit.ly/Ss6aad

FACEBOOK 'LIKES' VOTING-- As part of the social network giant's efforts to encourage voter turnout, Facebook has added a way for users to add the date they registered to their timelines. To add it, click on "Life Event," then pick "Travel & Experiences" and then "Registered to Vote." Users then input the state they're registered in and when they did it. A Facebook spokesman promised MT that this is solely for social media purposes and their advertisers won't be able to use the data to target advertisements or messages to swing-state voters. http://on.fb.me/Q2OJYy

FIGHTING FOR THE ‘GENERIC NAMESPACE’ — As the ICANN community gets ready to meet next month in Toronto, an issue is brewing involving the generic top-level domain applications. Some industry leaders sent a letter last night to ICANN about their concerns over firms applying for domain names of words that do not directly tie to their brands. The letter cites .blog and .cloud, which Google has applied for, and .music and .cloud, per Amazon's application. The concern is that the holders of these generic top-level domains could operate as a walled garden, only allowing one registrar and one registrant. “Generic words used in a generic way belong to all people. It is inherently in the public interest to allow access to generic new gTLDs to the whole of the Internet Community, e.g., .BLOG, .MUSIC, .CLOUD,” the letter reads. http://bit.ly/TsjsVI

In a letter sent last week to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, Consumer Watchdog said that if these applications are granted "large parts of the Internet would be privatized. It is one thing to own a domain associated with your brand, but it is a huge problem to take control of generic strings." (http://tinyurl.com/cnm4v27.) Both Google and Amazon declined to comment.

Meanwhile, ICYMI, ICANN President and Chief Executive Fadi Chehade sent a letter to leaders on the Senate and House Judiciary committees saying ICANN is not in a position to “unilaterally require an extension of the 60-day minimum length of the trademark claims service. The 60 day period was reached through a multi-year extensive process with the ICANN community.” The congressional leaders had asked ICANN whether it could require registries to make permanent a trademark clearinghouse, which alerts brand owners if anyone applies for their brand name as a second level domain. http://bit.ly/P4Tbqf

ISSA PUSHES FOR OPEN SOURCE-- Rep. Darrell Issa wants the federal government to increase the use of open-source software in federal IT acquisition. The push comes as part of draft legislation he introduced last week to reduce inefficiencies in government IT acquisition. “The language in the discussion draft ensures open source software has a level playing field in federal IT purchasing,” Issa said in a statement. “Equal footing would increase competition in procurement, driving down costs and delivering a better value to the American taxpayer.” The administration advocates for a technology-neutral approach, which includes open-source platforms. But the rate of adoption, according to an Issa spokesman, has been too slow. “It has only taken hold at a few agencies, such as DHS Science and Technology Directorate and DoD,” the spokesman wrote in email, suggesting the proposal would help it take off. The provision on open source: http://1.usa.gov/Ulo0YF; the full bill: http://1.usa.gov/UkPkq2.

CONSUMER WATCHDOG RAISES MORE CONCERN WITH GOOGLE/FTC SETTLEMENT -- Recall Consumer Watchdog, with the help of Gary Reback, is asking a federal court to reject the FTC's newest settlement with Google in part because the company didn't have to admit wrongdoing in violating the Buzz order.

In the latest filing to the court, Consumer Watchdog explained its thinking — and adds to its arguments. The group expressed concern about the lack of a permanent injunction in the agency's order, even as it acknowledged the FTC may have had a different intent. Otherwise, the group questioned the size of the fine, and again called the order "deficient" for allowing Google to deny liability. Full doc here: http://bit.ly/PSv5zX

THE FTC DIDN'T COMMENT, BUT…The agency and Google have until Sept. 28 to submit responses to the court, if they so choose. It's then up to the judge to decide whether to hold proceedings on the case, as Consumer Watchdog wants.

THE FCC AND MHEALTH—Genachowski made a public commitment Monday to act on a number of initiatives recommended by a new mHealth task report. It’s a pet issue for the FCC chairman, who taught CPR in college and was certified as an EMT. Genachowski has directed the agency to look at modernizing the Rural Health Care program to make it easier for hospitals and health care professionals to take advantage of funds available to boost broadband capacity, work with other countries to identify spectrum for Medical Body Area Network Devices, and recruit a permanent FCC Health Care Director, among other steps.

MOM-IN-CHIEF INQUIRES ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA — The Obama campaign posted a 4-minute video on YouTube showing three pairs of small-dollar donors sitting down for a meal with the president and first lady. It's a gauzy bit aimed at encouraging folks to donate so they can possibly win seats at the next such meal, but there's also an exchange with a couple who have children roughly the same age as the first daughters. "So now how do you all feel about Facebook and all that sort of stuff?" Michelle Obama asked. The couple shrug and don't really answer, so then the self-described Mom-in-Chief asked, "Do they text?" The parents admit to getting their kids cell phones "because we all go in different directions," to which Barack Obama chimed in, waving a hand at his wife: "She did the same thing, ‘cause I was all like, 'Who are they calling'?" http://bit.ly/PhnXMs

SPEED READ

FRENCH GOVERNMENT ASKS FACEBOOK TO EXPLAIN DATA GLITCH: The French government has summoned Facebook managers to appear before the country's data watchdog to explain how some of its users came to believe their privacy had been infringed on the social network, Reuters reports: http://reut.rs/OQQa10

RIOT AT FOXCONN FACTORY UNDERSCORES RIFT IN CHINA: Analysts say worker unrest in China has grown more common because workers are more aware of their rights, and yet have few outlets to challenge or negotiate with their employers, The New York Times reports: http://nyti.ms/OQUrBE

DONUTS INC.’S MAJOR PLAY FOR NEW WEB DOMAIN NAMES RAISES FEARS OF FRAUD: The single most aggressive bidder for lucrative new Web domains is a little-known investment group called Donuts Inc.— which may have close ties to a company with a well-documented history of providing services to spammers and other perpetrators of Internet abuses, the Washington Post reports: http://wapo.st/RZbQDu

FROM YOUTUBE TO TV: Made-for-Web content is finding new legs in the offline world, the Wall Street Journal reports: http://on.wsj.com/SjaZRW

NEW IPHONE SELLOUT TESTS APPLE SUPPLY: It’s the first time Apple said it had entirely sold out of initial supplies of a new iPhone, raising questions about why the company hadn't been able to supply more of the new model, the Wall Street Journal reports: http://on.wsj.com/St9eD1

IT MAY BE A COMPONENT SHORTFALL: Apple’s decision to create a smartphone that boasts a thinner, lighter touch screen contributed to the component shortfall that caused demand to outstrip supply of the iPhone. http://bloom.bg/SsMfYL

APPLE MAP ERRORS SEND JAPANESE TO HOMEGROWN APP: Mapion is one of Japan’s homegrown companies that is benefiting from Apple’s maps debacle, The New York Times reports: http://nyti.ms/PCtvCm